The Daily Telegraph - 07.08.2019

Coutinho eyes

loan as United

target Eriksen

By Jason Burt, James Ducker

and Matt Law

Philippe Coutinho has finally been

told he can leave Barcelona on loan

and is hoping for a return to the

Premier League before tomorrow’s

deadline. Tottenham Hotspur and

Manchester United are being most

strongly linked with a move for

Coutinho although, according to

sources, “no concrete offer” has

been made for the 27-year-old

Brazilian.

There have been a number of

inquiries, with Arsenal also

believed to be monitoring develop-

ments, even though their priorities

• mainly a central defender – lie
  elsewhere. Liverpool are not
  understood to be expected to make
  a bid for their former player, but
  Paris St-Germain could revive their
  previous interest.
  United are already pursuing an
  audacious late move for Tottenham
  playmaker Christian Eriksen, but
  may move for Coutinho if they
  cannot seal that deal before 5pm
  tomorrow.
  Coutinho moved to Barcelona
  from Liverpool for £142 million in
  January 2018 – the highest fee
  received by an English club – and
  until recently his representatives
  had been told that his future would
  remain at the Nou Camp.
  That appears to have changed in
  recent days, with the feeling now
  shared by Coutinho that it may be
  in his best interests to move on and,
  probably, to return to England,
  where he enjoyed such success.
  Nevertheless, Barcelona would
  expect to receive a record loan fee
  for Coutinho – a figure of £21 mil-
  lion for the season has been quoted
  in Spain. His wages of more than
  £200,000 a week would also have
  to be met in full.
  Spurs have distanced themselves
  from reports that they have
  submitted a formal offer
  and it is understood
  manager Mauricio Po-
  chettino – who worked
  with Coutinho at
  Espanyol – has not
  called the player,
  as had been
  suggested, to
  attempt to
  persuade him
  to join the
  club.
  Spurs are,
  nevertheless, at the
  centre of a number of
  potentially big deals
  before the window
  closes and would not
  rule out a move for
  Coutinho. Eriksen has
  been linked with sev-
  eral top European
  clubs, including Real
  Madrid, Juventus and
  Atletico Madrid, but

Spurs have yet to receive a formal

bid and United are hoping that may

encourage them to compromise on

price.

Daniel Levy, the Spurs chairman,

would prefer to sell Eriksen over-

seas rather than to a direct rival, but

he is also reluctant to allow a valua-

ble asset to leave for nothing when

his contract expires next summer.

United would have to pay a signifi-

cantly higher fee than a European

suitor, but there is hope Levy would

accept much less than the £130 mil-

lion English clubs were being

quoted at the end of last season.

Spurs are braced for European

clubs making cut-price bids of

below £50 million for Eriksen once

the Premier League window closes,

as the windows in Spain, Italy, Ger-

many and France are open until

later.

Spurs are already closing in on a

deal to sign Real Betis midfielder

Giovani Lo Celso for up to €60 mil-

lion (£55.3 million) before tomor-

row and also still hold an interest in

Sporting Lisbon’s Bruno Fernandes,

although it seems less likely that he

will make the move. To complicate

matters further, Spurs have also

registered their interest in Juven-

tus’s Paulo Dybala, but it is unlikely

Spurs would sign him and his

countryman Lo Celso.

Spurs have also received a

€15 million offer from a French club

for right-back Serge Aurier. Sources

at PSG have played down sugges-

tions that they are planning to re-

sign the Ivorian, who they sold to

Spurs in August 2017 for £23 mil-

lion, but transfers are now in the

sole control of new sporting direc-

tor Leonardo, who likes Aurier.

Uncertainty continues to sur-

round the future of Paul Pogba at

Old Trafford, meanwhile.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the United

manager, said over the weekend

that he had “no doubts” Pogba

would still be a United player

come the start of the season

and there are questions

whether either Real or

Juventus can afford

the club’s £160 mil-

lion-plus valua-

tion. Those

suspicions

grew last

week when

United rejected

a derisory bid of

€30 million plus

Colombia striker

James Rodri-

guez from Real

for Pogba.

Solskjaer

would like to have

both the French-

man and Eriksen in

his team.

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On move? Christian

Eriksen (left) and

Philippe Coutinho

came too soon for English great

to have suffered in a Manchester

casino two years ago – £500,000 in

one night. It makes you wince to

think that it has taken a

bookmaker’s money to bring him

back, the Derby shirt sponsor

32Red proving that in English

football you can have what you

want providing the money is right.

There was a time when the

debate was whether the generation

launched upon England careers in

the first half of the past decade

would ever see the inside of a

manager’s office given the wages

lavished upon them as players.

The reality has been that Steven

Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Sol

Campbell and now Rooney have

never considered doing anything

else in the long term, and more will

surely follow.

Rooney is different to those

three former team-mates and yet

the notion that he falls short

intellectually to be a manager is

part of the tired old prejudice that

has always existed against him. He

has always adapted and developed

to deal with a level of fame and

pressure that only a tiny number

have experienced.

There have, over the years, been

managerial careers quarried out of

material infinitely more defective

than that which went into making

a 120-cap, 53-goal, England captain

with five Premier League titles and

a Champions League to his name.

Those Rooney wonder goals

scored in MLS that the UK

audience would wake up to hours

later suggested a man who knew

how to compensate for having

older legs than all those many

eager college kids and less-

celebrated imports around him.

That is what makes this final

chapter to Rooney’s career such a

treat. It will be fascinating over the

years to see how he adapts as a

coach, with the demands that

makes in terms of diplomacy and

recruitment and tactical acumen.

But, from January, Rooney initially

will still be a footballer, a

wonderfully gifted player in a great

league fanning the last embers of

his immense talent, and on his day

a real pleasure to watch.

is just the latest football tie-up with the betting industry

Wayne Rooney

with the No 32

shirt he will

wear at Derby,

who are

sponsored by

32Red;

Huddersfield

players sport

the one-off

Paddy Power

kit which

caused a row

(left), and Sky

Bet’s branding

is on display at

an English

Football

League fixture

The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 7 August 2019 *** 3

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